


Love Thy Neighbor

by AshyssofAdomilee



Category: My Time At Portia (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Blood, Canon Divergence, F/M, Late game spoilers, Scars, Smut, Violence, but not too much, coarse lanuage, i saw a fan theory and I ran with it, mildly problematic relationships, non-canon, possible spoilers?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2020-08-16 02:55:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20172034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshyssofAdomilee/pseuds/AshyssofAdomilee
Summary: Inspired by Kerica - who had a mighty need for some Aadit/Builder smut.  This was supposed to be a one-shot, but then a weak plot happened and it kinda got away from me, and now it's just angst and people yelling.  However, soon, it will be angst, people yelling, and also sex.POSSIBLE SPOILERS. MAYBE? SEE END NOTES BELOW OR TURN BACK NOW:Anyhoo....please enjoy!





	1. Scars

** _ YEAR 2 - MONTH 1 DAY 18  _ **

"You're, what? 18? 19? You have no idea what the world was like during the Age of Darkness!"

Asha opened her mouth to interrupt Minister Lee's (unprovoked) tirade, but he continued over her; droning on about the evils of old-world technology. She blew a sigh through her nose and shifted her weight to the other foot, crossing her arms across her chest. It was the same argument she had heard year after year and if it wasn’t old before, it was all but prehistoric now. 

_'Gods, take a breath_" She thought - now thoroughly irritated - and looked past Lee and out the gates towards home. 

"Technology will one day destroy our world again...That's what I've learned from the history of corrupted worlds. You really must tell us if you find any corruptions in the ruins." Lee was looking at her expectantly. 

"I'm a Builder." Asha replied simply. "Technologies are a part of my life - of _all _our lives - one way or another. " she took a step forward and leaned in closer to the Minister's face. "And I may only be 24, and I may not have lived through the Age of Darkness, but neither did _you_." 

Lee's face turned an impressive shade of red and he sputtered indignantly. 

"Anyway, it's been lovely speaking with you but I have tonnes of work to do." she moved around him and tossed a hand into the air. "Toodles!"

*****

Hours later, as Asha was bent over the worktable and wiping sweat off her brow, the conversation with Lee was all but forgotten. Work was good for that--therapeutic, meditative, calming. Blueprints - even the most complex designs - made sense to her, and putting something together with her own hands brought a deep satisfaction unlike anything she'd ever felt. She didn't care what she was making - furniture, structures, trinkets; even growing her modest garden - filled flowers, fruit trees and vegetables - made her feel at peace. 

She set her hammer on the worktable and took a long drink of water from the bottle next to her. The sun sat high and bright in the middle of a clear sky, and she turned her face up like a sunflower chasing the warmth. Beyond the gentle rustle of wind through the trees and the low buzz of cicadas, everything was still and quiet. 

Asha loved Portia, and with each passing month she knew that moving from Barnarock was the best decision she'd ever made. Her old life felt so far away - like it wasn't even her life that she was remembering. The city had been so hot and crowded and busy - the work mundane and unsatisfactory. They day Asha received the letter from her Pa - a man she barely remembered - informing her that he had left her his workshop in Portia, she thought it was a joke and nearly tossed it into the nearest garbage. But she hesitated...something giving her pause. Instead, she tossed it into her bedside drawer and didn't give it another thought for almost 2 months. When she found it again, she read it over and over -- standing in her tiny, sweltering, studio apartment, listening to her neighbors screaming at each other over some domestic bullshit and the city noise bleeding up from the street below, and made her decision. Less than a week later, she was on a boat heading to Portia, with all her worldly possessions packed into 2 small bags, and she never looked back. 

Finishing her water and feeling refreshed, Asha returned to her work; a tea table commissioned by Alice. She hammered the last nail into place and picked up a sheath of course sandpaper, smoothing and buffing out the splinters and rough edges. When she was satisfied with the the feeling of the wood, she reached under the bench and pulled out a container of honeybee wax to seal it. Asha scowled and shook the bin -- it felt dishearteningly light -- and when she popped the lid off she groaned in annoyance. The bin was almost empty and there wasn't nearly enough in there to finish the whole table. 

Pushing her sweaty bangs out of her face she scanned the fields towards the few clusters of trees and wondered how much wax she'd be able to gather before it got too dark. Before she could decide though, her stomach gave an embarrassingly loud grumble, and Asha remembered that she had skipped breakfast. Deciding she'd gather the wax tomorrow, she headed inside to shower and change before leaving for the Round Table. 

******

** _ YEAR 2 - MONTH 2 DAY 5 _ **

Asha couldn't help the giddy little smile that pulled at her lips as she approached the Tree Farm. She smoothed her hair down and dusted non-existent dirt off her hands and skirt. 

She must have checked her reflection about twenty times before leaving the house, adjusting and re-adjusting the golden hair clip atop her long lavender curls and turning her body to check out her butt. 

_"Oouu, girl! You look cuuuute!"_ Asha smiled at her reflection. She had applied a coat of mascara to frame her wide emerald eyes, and her full lips were pink and glossy. Satisfied with how she looked, Asha grabbed a basket lined with waterproof cloth and set off along the northern path, a tiny skip in her step. She was excited, and happy for any reason to travel to the Tree Farm and see Aadit. 

Pushing the heavy gate open, she nearly ran into Dawa. The eldest Hulu brother had his arms full of fishing supplies, but grinned broadly at the Builder. 

"Asha, hey! Sorry - didn't mean to run you over haha!"

"No harm done, Dawa. Heading to see your brothers?" she gestured at the fishing poles and tackle boxes. 

"That I am! We're gonna have us a good ol' fashioned fish fry. Interested?"

Asha hoped she looked contrite. "Mm, maybe next time, Dawa. I've got some work to take care of - I'm here for honeybee wax. Got any to spare?"

"Honeybee wax, huh?' Dawa squinted. "Yeah, yeah we got some. Aadit is around here somewhere, he'll be able to help you out."

_"Oh, I hope so." _Asha thought, immediately flushing. Dawa, to his credit, didn't seem to notice, and continued on past her and out of the farm, the considerable gate closing heavily behind him. 

The Tree Farm was vacant, and a chorus of bird calls rang out loudly from the treetops above her. The air was clean and perfumed with apples, fruit blossoms, and sweet grass. Asha moved leisurely between the trees, running her hands affectionately along their trunks. She spotted Aadit near a copse of apple trees - his back was to her and he was gently depositing fruit into large wooden buckets. She paused to admire the way his shirt stretched across the expanse of his shoulders and back as he reached up into the branches, and felt her cheeks flush again. 

She had it _bad_ for the man. 

Aadit straightened and brushed bits of leaves from his hands, wiping his brow with the sleeve of his shirt. He reached up to unclasp the straps of his coveralls and let them fall from his shoulders before pulling the blue striped sweater over his head. Asha slapped a hand over her mouth and ducked behind the thick trunk of an old oak. Face burning, she slowed her breathing and peeked around the side of the tree again. Aadit - who had pulled his hair back into a loose bun - had also removed his purple undershirt and had resumed picking apples, reaching high into the branches. The straps of his coveralls hung loosely around his hips, the bottoms held up by a thick, low-slung belt, and she couldn't help but admire the way the muscles in his back bunched and stretched as he worked. 

Asha placed her basket on the ground and crept around the other side of the tree as quietly as she could. She had no idea what she was doing - why she was _spying_ on her friend like a total weirdo instead of just calling out to him. But there she was, hidden among the heavy boughs of the oak tree, watching a half-naked Aadit pick apples while warmth pooled low in her belly. 

Remembering why she had come and shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Asha made an effort to move away from the tree before she incriminated herself further. As silently as she could manage, she took a few tentative steps backwards and promptly tripped on one of the gnarled roots of the oak, letting out a loud yelp of surprise and landing hard on her back in the dirt. Her shout had startled the few birds nesting in the tree above her, and the leaves rustled raucously with the commotion of it all. 

Asha knew she was busted, and when Aadit's concerned face swam into view, her profound humiliation wasn't tempered in any way by her utter lack of surprise. 

"Asha..? Asha! Are you alright? Here, let me help you." Aadit's voice was full of concern, lacking any of the accusatory energy she was half-expecting to hear considering she had been caught spying. Before she could answer, he was slipping one of his arms under her shoulders and easing her into a sitting position, gently brushing leaves and debris out of her hair, and allowing her to lean against his chest. "What happened? What are you doing out here?"

"I..uhm...I w-was...' Asha struggled to get her words out, but being held this close to the surprisingly toned, bronzed, and well-muscled chest of the man she had spent months _aggressively _lusting after had her stuttering like a fool. This close to him, she could smell the sweat on his skin, and the faintest smell of his soap - earthy and deep and foreign. She wondered if he imported it from Seesai or elsewhere. It made something secret and dark stir within her - a simmering desire that dissolved the remainder of her embarrassment. 

Aadit brought his face close to hers, and for a brief, exhilarating moment, Asha thought he was going to kiss her, but he was only checking her pupils for signs of a concussion. He brought his hand to the back of her head tenderly and felt around for any bumps or cracks. Asha finally found her voice and reached back to catch his hand in hers. 

"Aadit, I'm fine. I'm okay, really. I'm not hurt, I just tripped is all." 

"Are you sure?" Aadit removed his hand from the back of her head but didn't make any effort to let her go completely. 

"Yes, I'm alright." There was a beat of silence between them. "I was, uhm...I was looking for honeybee wax and Dawa said you would have some." Asha dropped her eyes as she felt heat colour her features again. "So I was looking for you." she finished lamely. 

"Looks like you found me," Aadit said lightly. His full lips curled into an attractive smile. "Or rather, I found you." 

"Yes...you did." Asha tried to figure out if he was playing with her - goading her into admitting that she had been peeping him from the bushes like some kind of night-stalker, or if he legitimately hadn't noticed. She hoped with every fibre of her being that it was the latter. 

Aadit shifted and took her hand more firmly. "Here, let me help you up." He stood and pulled her to her feet easily - as if she weighed nothing at all. The bulky, shapeless layers of clothing he usually wore had been hiding a strength in him that made Asha feel fragile and delicate in comparison. She steadied herself by gripping his shoulders firmly, his hands holding her elbows, and let her eyes rake along the length of his arms and chest. 

Aadit's body was littered with scars - new scars, pink and puffy - old scars, white and jagged - big, small, deep, shallow, they were _everywhere_. In addition to the old wounds, bruises in every colour marbled the skin of his chest and ribs. Asha's eyebrows knit together and she touched one of the mottled purple patches tenderly. 

"Aadit - what happened..?" the question came as a breathy whisper; as though raising her voice would cause him to flee from her. Asha's brain raced to explain what she was seeing, and failing. Aadit was a pacifist - he hated violence and rejected any kind of conflict. She'd never known him to so much as spar with anyone, and he even refused to attend the annual martial arts contest. What - or who - could have done this? 

_Something_ flickered in Aadit's eyes - a hardness- but it was gone as quick as it came. He flashed a smile at Asha and dropped her arms, moving quickly away from her. "Oh, these?' he gestured down to himself. "Just wear and tear from work. It's a tough life, being a logger, and sometimes accidents happen."

There was a disingenuousness in his voice that slithered through Asha - coiling and curling along her spine like a serpent. For the first time since she had met him, she suddenly felt as though she didn't know Aadit as well as she _thought _she did. 

"These don't **look **like accidents, Aadit. They look like battle scars-" Asha regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth. She knew that Aadit had come to Portia seeking refuge from the war to the north, and she suddenly wondered if the scars were indicative of some past trauma relating to the conflict with Duvos. Her face burned with shame and Asha found she couldn't meet his eyes anymore. 

Aadit turned his back to her again, and she noted a stiffness in his shoulders as he bent to retrieve one of his discarded shirts. His back was similarly scarred as his front - Asha just hadn't been able to see from her initial hiding place by the oak. 

"It's fine Asha. You shouldn't worry about me so much." Aadit still had his back turned and was slowly buttoning his shirt, his voice low. When he faced her again he wore his usual gentle, if somewhere wary, smile. "Now, let's get you some honeybee wax". 

Wordlessly, Asha retrieved her basket and followed him deeper through the farm to where he and Dawa had set up a makeshift apiary. The dozen or so hives were constructed in a small clearing, and flowers had been planted in a wide swath around them (under the careful supervision of Alice) to give the bees a food source. The air was fragrant with the smell of the blooms and the flower beds were alive with the buzzing of happy little bees doing their happy little bee thing. Asha couldn't help but smile as she and Aadit carefully stepped through the garden and he pointed out the different flowers. In no time at all, her earlier stormy mood was forgotten and she slipped into the familiar serenity she felt with him. 

Pulling up the lid of a large wooden barrel nearby, Aadit scooped up and deposited several large handfuls of honeybee wax into Asha's basket, stopping short of making it too heavy to carry. 

"Would you like a jar of honey to take home?" he asked, jabbing a thumb towards one of the hives. "I've sourced some this morning, and it's ready to go." 

Asha considered it for a moment - taking a mental stock of her pantry. 

"This batch has been made with a different assortment of wildflowers than the kind from last fall, and it's got a unique flavour." Aadit continued. "It's really delicious."

"Okay, you've convinced me." Asha replied around a laugh. 

He grinned at her. "Great - wait here and I'll be right back." 

Asha set her basket on the ground and took a seat under the boughs of a nearby Maple tree. The sun was sinking towards the horizon, sending bright orange light streaming through the branches and painting the Tree Farm in shades of amber. She reclined comfortably against the trunk and turned her face towards the sky in order to admire the brilliant streaks of purple and pink. 

"Sorry for the wait,' Aadit wandered back into the clearing balancing a small tray in his hands. "I brought snacks, I hope you don't mind." He knelt in front of Asha and set the tray down in her lap. It was laden with black tea, sliced apples, apricots, scones and a jar filled with thick, golden honey. 

"This looks amazing - thank you!" Asha patted the grass next to her in invitation before digging into the fruit and honey, sighing contentedly as the flavours burst across her tongue. Aadit was right - this batch of honey was lighter and more fragrant than what she was used to, and she could almost taste the flowers beneath the fruit. Feeling brave, she leaned her head against Aadit's shoulder and they lapsed into a companionable silence, sharing the fruit and scones between them and watching the sun set through the trees. 

When she felt Aadit slip an arm around her waist and tuck her into his side a little more firmly, she told herself the sudden rush of warmth to her core was from the tea and definitely not from the exhilaration of being so close to him. 

Once the tray was empty and set aside, Asha hummed contentedly and folded her legs beneath her to better lean against Aadit. 

"Thank you again, that _was _delicious." she turned and smiled brightly up at him, and Aadit noticed that her large, sparkling eyes were the same shade of green as the canopy of leaves above them. 

"You're welcome" he murmured affectionately, a smile tilting his lips. "Here, you missed some..." he brushed his thumb along Asha's plump bottom lip where some errant crumbs, sticky with honey, had collected. 

She felt her cheeks ignite with a potent combination of embarrassment and arousal, and her lips parted around the tiny gasp she couldn't hold back. She felt her thighs squeeze together under her, and the sudden and profound _want_ that flooded through her short-circuited her brain and made her hungry in an entirely different sense. Aadit seemed frozen by indecision, his eyes flicking between her eyes and lips, but his fingers tightened around the soft swell of her hip in a silent question. 

Carefully, she caught Aadit's wrist in her hand and slowly, without breaking eye contact, brought his thumb to her mouth and touched her tongue to the crumbs that were stuck there before closing her lips around the digit and licking it clean. 

A dark hunger flared in Aadit's eyes, his pupils dilating and swallowing the iris. 

"Better?" she whispered. 

He groaned low in his throat and wrapped his hand around the back of Asha's head, crushing their lips together in a heated kiss. 

Asha moaned in equal parts relief and desire, and tilted her face to better slot their mouths together. She'd wanted this, thought about this - about  _him_ \- for so long, and the feeling of his arms finally wrapping around her and pulling her close made her head swim deliriously. 

Aadit tangled his hand in her hair and licked into her mouth, tasting honey and apples and something distinctly  _Asha, _ and he bit off a growl when a powerful and dangerous possessiveness roared through him. All the urges he had fought so hard to suppress rattled inside him like a caged beast and he suddenly wanted to claim her, to suck bruises into her neck, to mark her skin and taste every inch of her. 

He knew she was strong - he had seen her fight both beasts and men, he'd watched her with awe and respect as she had built and developed Portia with her own hands, had seen her haul bulging sacks and bags of riches and old tech from the ruins surrounding Portia, knew she had cleared out almost every dangerous place she'd come across with a courage and determination he admired. He knew in ways he wished he didn't that she was strong. 

But now? She felt pliant and small in his arms. The considerable strength he kept hidden away made Asha feel like a doll, and when he pulled her trembling body into his lap, he answered her gasp of surprise with another low groan of approval. 

  


Asha eagerly returned his kiss and ground against the hard line of his cock, moaning brokenly and fisting her hands into the back of his shirt. Aadit couldn't help bucking up into her, and when she threw her head back and gasped his name like a prayer -  _"Ah! A-Aadit!"_ \- he knew with certainty that she would be the one to ruin him. 

Groping blindly, Asha smoothed her hands up the back of his shirt, desperate to feel his skin against hers. He dragged his clothed erection against her core again and the friction was both overwhelmingly intense and not enough - there were too many layers, too many _things_ in the way. It was too much - it wasn't enough - and Asha felt like she was going to burn up from the inside. She finally got her hands into his shirt and dragged her palms up the flat expanse of his back, smoothing over the rough knobs of old scar tissue and lingering at a long, freshly scarred slash across his shoulder blades. 

Aadit made a rough, choked noise as her fingers tenderly traced the raised skin, and stiffened suddenly. His hands came away from her body, and Asha opened her eyes to find him starting back at her - his gaze wide and dark. He tore his mouth away from her and sucked in several huge, panting breaths before squeezing his eyes shut.

"Aadit..? Wha--" 

"_No_!" Aadits voice was a rough growl. "You...you shouldn't - _we_ shouldn't." His hands gripped her shoulders painfully tight. "You need to get away from here - from **me!"**

Before she could answer, Asha found herself laying on her back in the grass, looking up at the canopy. Her chest hurt, and it took a few steadying breaths before realizing that Aadit had...pushed her. He'd shoved her out of his lap as though she had burned him. Hurt and confusion collided within Asha as she struggled to push herself up on her elbows. Aadit was already on his feet, backing away from her and looking stricken. 

Unbidden, tears blurred her vision and when she opened her mouth only a dazed whine escaped. She thought she heard Aadit mutter a strangled apology before he turned and fled from her, disappearing through the trees and leaving her alone on the ground. 

** _ YEAR 2 - MONTH 4 DAY 23 _ **

_ _

"It's been months and Aadit is _still _missing. Are you sure you checked everywhere? He could be hurt somewhere, or maybe-"

"Asha,' Arlo gently held his hand up, and she felt her mouth snap shut. "I promise you, we've looked everywhere - _thoroughly _\- and Wuwa has been keeping an eye on the harbour. I know this isn't the outcome you were hoping for, but it's likely that Aadit has left Portia." 

"But.....' Asha's voice died in the quiet of the room, knowing that the Captain was right. 

His expression softened and Arlo put his hands on her shoulders comfortingly. "I'm sorry, Asha. I know that you and he were...close. I can't tell you what makes a man run, but I can tell you that he must have had his reasons." 

Asha felt her chest tighten as a familiar ache bloomed inside her. "I just don't understand what I _did!_" her voice broke on the last word and she dropped her head into her hands, allowing Arlo to pull her into a tight hug. 

"Nothing." above her, his voice was a hard rumble. "_You _did absolutely nothing." 

** _ YEAR 3 - MONTH 1 DAY 2 _ **

_ _

Lightning flashed through the sky and split the night like a wound. The answering roar of thunder moments later sounded like a war-cry, shaking the walls of Asha's house and making her burrow deeper into her blankets. Wind howled down her chimney like a lonely ghost, bringing more of the chilly damp air from the early spring storm into her room. 

Huffing a sigh, Asha dragged herself out of bed to check the flute for what felt like the hundredth time that night, and vowed to commission a new chimney and fireplace from Albert and Gust as soon as she could gather the materials. 

She shuffled over to her tiny kitchen and set about making a cup of tea, figuring since she was up she might as well get some work done. She had thrown herself fully into the reconstruction of Portia - focusing her efforts on rebuilding the school so that the Kids would have some semblance of normalcy back in their lives. 

Setting a steaming mug of spiced tea on her drafting table and clicking on a lamp, Asha busied herself with the many blueprints and construction drawings she had spread out over its surface. 

The last few weeks had been full of danger, starting with Mali's arrival and inspection of the Western Ruin and the discovery of the All Source tech, and ending with Ursula's betrayal and the utter destruction of Southern Portia at the hands of the Rogue Knight. 

Asha shuddered inwardly as she remembered her encounters with the masked warrior; first in the Western Ruin and again in Central Plaza. In the Ruin, even the combined power of the entire Civil Corps team, Mali, and herself wasn't enough to defeat him, and the Rogue Knight had cut through all of them as though they were nothing. Strangely though, he never delivered a killing blow, even when the entire team was disabled and vulnerable. He had only stood there, considering them for a moment, before disappearing. They had regrouped and limped out of the ruin, glad for their lives, but filled with a deep unease that lingered until his return. The final battle in Central Plaza went similarly sideways, and it was only though Django's timely (and surprising) intervention that Asha and the Corps were able to walk away that day. The Knight's sword was still planted in the stone of Central Plaza - no one possessing the strength or energy to remove it - and she wondered if it meant he would one day return to claim it. 

Rubbing her templates wearily, Asha wished she had never gotten involved in any of it and deeply regretted the part she played in the discovery of the All Source.

Lightning skittered along the sky, pulling her from her thoughts, and she glanced out the window as thunder gave another loud snarl in the night. She froze, her gaze lingering on the spaces between the row of industrial furnaces out in the yard - in their weak, broken light, she swore she detected movement. After a few beats, she blinked sleep out of her eyes and turned back to the blueprints spread out before her, glancing quickly between the window and her bolted door. The clock above her kitchen sink chimed gently in the quiet of the room, announcing the arrival of midnight, and she pushed herself out of her chair to refill her mug. 

Her yard lit up briefly with another brilliant flash of lightning and Asha froze again, a teabag dangling from her fingers. She squinted out her window, breath held, and scanned her yard again. She was sure she had caught a glimpse of _something_ in the rain and she set her mug down on the counter. There, in the flickering, orange light of the furnaces, she saw him. A man was standing in her yard and looking up towards the house. 

Asha stumbled back from the window and groped for the lamp on the drafting table, clicking it off and draping the room in shadow. 

"What the _hell!_?"

Lightning illuminated the yard and confirmed that it wasn't just her fatigued eyes playing tricks on her. Asha glanced at her sword leaning against a nearby wall, and before she had even registered what she was doing, it was in her hands and she was yanking open her front door and marching outside. The light above her front door bathed the porch in a weak, yellow glow and her angry shout at the intruder was drowned out by the roar of the storm. 

"I **said **'who's there?'" her fingers gripped the hilt of her obsidian sword; its weight familiar. Cold rainwater soaked through her clothes and sluiced into her eyes, and she blinked hard trying to clear her vision. The figure stepped out from behind the row of furnaces and took a few cautious steps, stopping when he was less than 10 feet from her. His face was obscured by the hood of his dark sweatshirt and when he took another step forward, Asha raised her sword again. 

"**Stop. **Who are you? What are you doing at my house?"

The man paused and raised his hands slowly. He gripped the hood and pulled it back, shaking his wet hair out of his face. Asha felt all the air leave her body in a rush and her arms fell to her sides, the sword slipping from her fingers. 

"...._Aadit_?"

She felt the cold, slick grass under her bare feet as she closed the distance between them and all but fell into his arms. A mixture of relief and anger swirled through Asha as she clung to the front of his sweater, soaked completely through from the rain. She felt his hot breath against her temple as he released a long sigh.

"I'm sorry" he murmured roughly. "I'm so sorry."

Indignation exploded through Asha and she grabbed two fistfuls of his shirt, shaking him. "You're _sorry?! _You disappear for _**months**_, and you're sorry?! Do you know how worried I've been - how worried _everyone's _been??" Hot tears streamed down her face and mixed with the rain. "I looked **_everywhere _**for you - I thought you might have been hurt, or worse, and you just _show up_ in the middle of the night and say you're _sorry_?" her voice wavered around a sob as she pounded her fist into his shoulder. "You don't **get **to be sorry, you sonofabitch!"

Aadit stood there and let her drive her small fists into his chest and shoulders until he felt the strength leave her. He knew Asha was right - he didn't have any right to be there. Not after everything he'd done to her - what he'd been forced to do. He certainly didn't deserve her forgiveness. She owed him nothing. But he was selfish, and when he cupped the back of Asha's head and drew her into his chest again, his heart twisted painfully when she leaned into his embrace. Her whole body shook with the force of her emotion, and angry sobs bubbled out of her freely. He felt like a monster. 

He had tried so damn hard to change, to be a good man, to escape a life that brought nothing but pain and misery. After drifting for years, Aadit thought he might have finally succeeded, and created a new life and identity in Portia. He allowed himself to feel...hopeful, and let his guard down, which ultimately lead to this. The old Masters had found him - they always did - and when they had given him his orders, he'd had no choice but to comply. 

_"Bring us the All Source and remove any resistance, or we will kill every last citizen in that backwater hole you've been hiding in. Everyone." _

And Aadit had obeyed. He'd donned his old face, and his old life, and had raised his sword against the people who had called him 'friend'. Against Asha - the person he cared for, above all others. He'd raised his sword to them to keep them - to keep _everyone _\- alive. 

His Masters had no such scruples, and their blatant disregard for human life in their pursuit of military conquest was legendary. 

Asha had stopped crying, wiping tears and rain out of her eyes, but when she spoke, her voice sounded dull and tired. "Why did you come here, Aadit?"

"I wanted to see you." He owed her that truth, at least. "One last time." 

"What are you talking about? Why won't you tell me what's going on with you?"

"I can't."

Asha glared at him. "What do you mean you 'can't'?"

"I **can't**." A hardness had crept into Aadit's voice, and he clenched his jaw tightly. "Asha, I'm not looking to...to fight with you here. I just...I wanted to see you and give you a proper goodbye. Please don't make this harder than it already is."

Rage coiled and snapped inside Asha, as hot and bright as the lightning above them. "How _dare_ you?' she tore herself away from his embrace and shoved him backwards. "Don't make this hard? Are you _fucking **kidding **me_?!"

"I'm only trying to protect you!" Aadit growled.

Asha barked a short laugh. "Protect me? Is that why you left me in the dirt after you kissed me? Why you disappeared without so much as a 'peace out' note to anyone? You're not protecting anyone but yourself, like a godsdamned coward!"

Aadit stalked towards her again and curled his hands around her arms, pulling her close to his chest. "I don't care if you hate me, but I need you to believe me." Asha struggled a bit in his grasp and he tightened his hold. When she raised her furious eyes to his gaze, Aadit looked wounded and desperate. "You're the only person who's ever mattered to me, Asha. I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of, and I've spent a lot of time running away. But meeting you - having you as a friend was the best thing that ever happened to me."

"You **left **me!" Asha seethed, jutting her chin out defiantly. 

"I had to!" Aadit forced out between clenched teeth. 

The storm continued to rage, having lost none of it's earlier power or fury, drenching them in sheets of hard rain as the wind whipped around them like a tempest. The chill of the wind made Asha acutely aware of the closeness of Aadit's large, firm body against hers and the warmth radiating off him. She studied his face, tracing the strong lines of his jaw before meeting his gaze again. 

"You didn't have to do anything, Aadit, except be honest with me." she said thickly, emotion tempering some of the anger in her voice. 

He rested his forehead against hers. "It's better if you don't know, Asha. Trust me, you're better off hating me."

"I _loved _you--"

Aadit's grip on her arms tightened. "Stop." his voice was a low warning. 

"No," Asha countered. "You came to me and you're gonna hear it. I loved you, Aadit, and when you left it _killed _me. You have no idea what I've been through since you left - what's happened in Portia. This place went to absolute hell and it's been _terrifying_." A spike of lightning reflected in her eyes - twin pools of malachite in the stormy night. She wanted to hate him - she wished she could. Her heart ached in her chest as deeply and as completely as the day he had left - his presence soothing none of the pain caused by his absence. "I know you've been hurt by your past - it's practically written all over your body-'

Aadit stiffened again, nostrils flaring. "Asha. **_Stop_**."

"-but you can't use that as an excuse to push people away from you! You don't get to cut people out of your life and run away when you get scared of letting them in-"

"Scared?" Aadit snarled the word, his voice so rough and dark it didn't even sound like him. "You think I'm scared of people, Asha?" he bore down on her until her back bumped against one of her houses' wooden support pillars, knocking a small huff of air from her lungs and trapping her against the hard planes of his chest. "People should be scared of _me_."

Realization dawned on Asha, and her mouth dropped open in disbelief. "Oh gods....you're him, aren't you?"

Muted pain and something akin to shame flashed through Aadit's eyes, and his grip on her loosened. "I should never have come here." Abruptly, he dropped his hands and turned from her, striding quickly across the yard. She felt the loss of his warmth immediately, and ran after him. 

"Don't you **dare **run from me again! Answer me!" She curled her hands around his bicep and yanked, surprised when he complied and stopped. "Answer me,' she repeated, circling around him to block his path. "Are you him? Are you the Rogue Knight?"

"Go home, Asha," Aadit replied, refusing to look at her. "Forget you saw me. Forget you ever knew me."

"No!" An anger that Aadit had grown quite familiar and accustomed with shone brightly in her eyes, and she shoved him backwards with both hands, his feet slipping in the wet mud. "Answer me!"

Aadit's own temper flared at her stubbornness. "I _said _go home, Asha."

"Or what? Are you going to attack me again? Is that really why you came here? To finish the job?" 

"You can see that I'm unarmed." he replied simply. 

It was not the correct thing to say, as Asha balled her fist and hit him square in the jaw, sending him stumbling backwards. She shook out her hand and tackled him the rest of the way to the ground, straddling his waist and bunching her hands in his shirt. 

"Like you'd even _need_ a weapon, huh? If you've come to finish the job, then do it." Asha sat back on her knees and flipped her wild mane of hair over her shoulder. "You've already broken my heart, Aadit - let's see what other damage you can do." 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaaaaaaand we're back. Sorry for the loooooong pause between chapters. For some reason, I just couldn't get this to come out how I wanted. This is a bit of a shorter chapter, but I wanted to get -something- up here. 
> 
> Anywhoo, here there be angst and slightly problematic behavior, but fear not - our girl isn't scared of a little roughness and there's _NO_ non-con here.

Despite the relentless rain and cold muddy water seeping into Aadit's clothes and soaking through to his skin, he only felt the heat that roared through his body. Asha's lips were parted and her chest rose and fell in time with her angry, shallow breaths; the flickering light from the furnaces painting her face in sharp slashes of gold and red. Her thin nightshirt was soaked through with the rain and it clung to her body in ways that sent spikes of arousal straight to Aadit's crotch. 

He thought she had never looked more beautiful, and something painful and familiar twisted in his chest, snaring his heart in a thorny fist. Swallowing thickly, he covered her hands - still balled in the fabric of his sweater - with his palms. "I don't want to fight you, Asha, and I didn't come here to kill you." he ground out roughly, voice almost lost in the storm. 

"I don't believe you." she hissed out between clenched teeth. 

"Hate me, Asha. _Forget me!_"

"_Fuck you_!"

Asha pulled her hands free and readied another punch, but Aadit caught her fist and shifted their weight, rolling until she was on her back beneath him. He dodged an incoming headbutt and covered her with his body, pressing his weight into her until he felt some of the fight leave her. 

"_She's so different now' _he thought "_Angry. Feral. _ _Look what **you **did to her."_

"What do you _want_ from me, Aadit?!" 

The Knight paused, peering down into her wide emerald eyes as lightning split the sky above them. _"What do I __**want**__?"_ He knew what he wanted. 

_Her_. 

Aadit wanted her with a deep, dangerous, _ravenous_, possession that he felt in every cell of his body. 

The past few months had been agonizing - every moment he was away from her, every second he was forced to raise his sword to her - it had felt as though a part of his soul was leaving him. By the time he had received his crippling defeat at the hands of Django, he felt hollow. More ghost than man. 

After licking his wounds for a few days, Aadit had returned to Portia intending to sneak into the Tree Farm one night. He had previously stashed away supplies in secret, enough to get him away from the Free Cities and - hopefully - into the wilds of the Begeondan, where he figured some beast or another horror would finally take his life. He was fully prepared to die alone in those feral wastelands, or so he thought until he had caught a glimpse of Asha standing in her yard and staring up at the low, pale moon. 

Frozen, Aadit stood in the shadows watching her, hands hanging limply at his sides. She looked so small, and when she finally tore her gaze from the sky and limped slowly towards her house, Asha's hand was pressed protectively around her tender ribs. Grief flooded through Aadit with such ferocity that it felt as though his heart had been pierced by hot metal. His breath left him in a single choked-off sob and he sank to his knees, unable to stand under the weight of his anguish. Realization of what he had done, forced or otherwise, crashed into him in unstoppable waves of shame and remorse, his despair so complete and encompassing he was sure he'd die of heartsickness before he ever made it to the wilds. 

Across the fields, a light clicked on in Asha's house, and despite his better judgment, Aadit hauled himself to his feet and crept closer. He wanted - needed - to see her. Explain himself. Throw himself at her feet and beg for her mercy. Beg for her to kill him. Something. _Anything_. His head fell into his hands and he sank his teeth roughly into the leather of his gloves. He wanted to die. He wanted to see her. He wanted to hold her once again - to kiss her, taste her--

_"Oh gods-"_

He was going mad. 

A moment later, the light clicked off and Aadit was once more shrouded in shadow and silence. His chest ached with every beat of his wretched heart. Staggering to his feet, he struggled to get his breathing under control as the pain inside him ebbed away into a dull, constant throb and he pressed his fingers into his temple. 

He knew he should leave.

He didn't. 

Aadit lingered in Portia for days - keeping to the caves and hidden places during the day, sneaking out every night once the moon was high in order to keep his silent vigil on Asha. 

It was wrong. 

It was dangerous. 

He couldn't stop. 

He was obsessed. 

If he could just get to her, he would tell her everything. He would make her _see--._

Thunder cracked like a whip and Aadit shook himself out of the memory. His large body pressed against Asha's, shielding her from the rain, with his hands still wrapped around her wrists, fingers flexing impatiently. She glared up at him, but most of the contempt was absent from her gaze, some unreadable emotion replacing the earlier fury that made his cock throb within the damp canvas of his pants. 

Aadit squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his forehead against hers, exhaling against her chilled lips. "You know damn well what I want, Asha." He felt her nose brush against his as she jutted her chin out defiantly once more. 

"Take it, then." she rasped against his lips. 

Losing himself in the soft, warm press of her body under him, Aadit crushed his mouth to Asha's in a biting kiss \- abandoning finesse in lieu of something instinctual and rough. It was all teeth and tongue, and he eagerly swallowed her shuddering moans, releasing her hands and hissing as she immediately raked her nails through his tangled hair and along his scalp. He grabbed a handful of her thigh and hauled her leg over his hip in order to grind against her center more fully and growled when she arched up to meet him. Aadit dropped more of his weight onto Asha and bit into the skin of her kiss-swollen lips. 

"Don't move" he ordered, voice rough "just...just stay still and let me - _gods_ Asha - let me...._nngh..._" he grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled her head back to give him better access to the sensitive skin beneath her ear, sucking angry purple bruises onto her neck and biting along her jaw. 

Ignoring Aadit's broken demands, Asha shifted under him to try and pull his hips down against her core again, hiking her leg up over the curve of his ass and digging her nails hard into the tight muscle of his shoulders. Aadit slanted his mouth over hers again and licked along her palate, groaning at the sensation of coarse fabric catching against sensitive skin and adjusting his position to rut against Asha harder. Somewhere - distantly - he knew he should stop, or slow down at least. Be gentle. 

_Gentler_. 

**_No_.**

Aadit adjusted his position and groped her breasts roughly, thumbing the hardened peaks of her nipples through her soaking nightshirt until Asha dragged his mouth down for another bruising kiss. Her fingernails scratched welts down his back and sides as she reached between them to fumble with his belt, palming his erection through his pants along the way before tugging his fly open. Asha panted hotly against his mouth and squeezed the stiff line of his cock harder than was probably comfortable, grinning wickedly at Aadit's grunt of pain. Her amusement gave way to a spike of dark arousal as the cold fingers of Aadit's right hand wrapped around her throat, pressing hard enough that her breath caught with a garbled wheeze. Her face flared with heat and she moaned brokenly. 

"Stay _still!" _he hissed against the shell of her ear, shoving roughly at the hem of her nightdress and cupping the searing heat of her cunt. Asha arched into his hand in an attempt to get more friction where she needed it, and curled her fingers in the waist of his jeans, yanking them down his thighs. Aadits erection sprang free easily, and Asha wrapped her chilly fingers around the thick base, giving him a few firm strokes. His forehead fell against her collar and he released her neck to grope blindly at her breasts. "Fuck, what are you doing to me?" 

Asha pulled his mouth down to hers in a messy kiss and nipped harshly at his lips. "Shut up and touch me."

Aadit yanked her panties down her legs unceremoniously and sank two thick fingers into the tight heat at the apex of her thighs. After all, he could never deny her. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm digging the 'Aaditissecretlytherogueknight' theory, and since I love me some 'tall, dark and handsome with a tortured past' action, I decided to run with that. 
> 
> Also, definite spoilers for late game content.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Chapter 2 coming sooooooon. 
> 
> -beijos xo


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